It wouldn’t be a fair without cotton candy

Thursday

Aug 27, 2009 at 12:01 AMAug 27, 2009 at 3:06 AM

It’s one of the simplest treats you can snag at the Marshfield Fair – sugar. Cotton candy, the fluffy, sticky, sweet concoction, has been a fair staple for more than hundred years. It made its debut as Fairy Floss at the Paris Exposition in 1900.

Staff reports

It’s one of the simplest treats you can snag at the Marshfield Fair – sugar. Cotton candy, the fluffy, sticky, sweet concoction, has been a fair staple for more than hundred years. It made its debut as Fairy Floss at the Paris Exposition in 1900.

To turn a tablespoon of sugar into the airy goodness that gets gobbled up at fairs and carnivals, a special machine is needed to melt the sugar, turning it into a liquid. Small holes in the round machine create threads of sugar, which are caught on a stick or stuck together to put in a bag.

To make one serving requires just a tablespoon or so of sugar.

At the Marshfield Fair, three stands sell cotton candy, mostly in prepackaged bags.

Concession worker Natalia Fay, who has spent 10 years working the fair, said cotton candy is usually a big seller among patrons, along with candy apples, another old-fashioned treat.

The sugar is flavored and colored, pink for vanilla, blue for blue raspberry and yellow for banana. Pink and blue are the most popular, Fay said.

While making cotton candy seems simple, doing it on a blustery day can be hazardous. The wind can send spun sugar flying.

And if you’ve been making cotton candy at the fair all day, at day’s end “you’re totally sticky,” Fay said.

The Patriot Ledger

HISTORY OF COTTON CANDY

15th century: First made in Italy by melting sugar and using a fork to pull strands over an upside-down bowl
18th century: Confectioners use the same process to create webs of sugar in various shapes
1897: Candy makers William Morrison and John C. Wharton create the first cotton candy machine, which pushes melted sugar through a screen to create spun strands
1900: Makes its world debut at the Paris Exposition
1904: At the St. Louis World’s Fair, Morrison and Wharton sell nearly 70,000 boxes of Fairy Floss
1920s: Spun sugar becomes better known as cotton candy
1970s: Automatic cotton candy machine created, allowing easier mass production